Pantser or Plotter? that is the quetion

Sorry I’ve been away for a few weeks – busy, busy. In talking to fellow writers at the most recent meeting of the Washington Romance Writers I finally came up with a posting idea

Are you a Pantser or a Plotter?????

Let’s define what that means:

Ploter is pretty much self –defined. A plotter outlines their story from beginning to end so they know when to hit the high points and low points. There are many different templates for these outlines but the results are the same – the writer has plotted out the course of the journey through the story.

Pantser: pretty much flying by the seat of your pants – that’s me. I get an idea, usually a what if scenario and then the characters start talking and telling me how they are going to move through the story. I pretty much know the meet the middle and the finally – everything else is a “let’s see what happens.” It’s very organic.

That being said there is no right way or wrong way to give your story life – the point is to WRITE!!!!

I’ve met writers who have the synopsis already written without a word of the story down yet – me I can’t even write a synopsis after the manuscript is finished.

Characters not talking to you but the story is….well then you are probably going to be a plotter. You’ll know every scene before the characters reveal themselves to you.

Most pantsers who I’ve talked with have been like I am, the story comes with characters, a history, a world, all the nuances that reveal themselves as you write. Personally I just write and then go back and edit, unless I trip over something that isn’t working and then I’ll go back and find out “when did that start being a problem?”

Again, your process doesn’t matter as long as you WRITE!!! If the story is important to you then don’t let it go to waste – even if you are the only person who ever reads it – write it – everything is a learning experience!

I finished 4 manuscripts, 5 including the one that was just contracted, but I have another 12 in various stages of “in progress” – of those there are the first three I wrote that one day I would like to revisit because I loved the characters and I have learned so much more about writing that NOW I think I can fully tell their story.